Ban Home Births!

[NHSsupporter]

This should be a topic that will get the "rights for women" brigade fired up!

I have listened for several years to a close friend of mine who is an NHS Community Midwife, and have decided that we should bite the bullet and BAN "NHS sponsored home births".

I make this suggestion based on, what I believe to be, several compelling arguments:

1. Child safety

2. NHS Budget

3. Parent welfare

4. In my friends experience between 33%-50% of all home births at 2 hospitals she has worked at in 2 very different areas, seem to end up in difficulties ultimately requiring the attendance of paramedics, an ambulance, and subsequent blue-light evacuation to hospital. Surely it would be better for the unborn child's safety and welfare for it to start being born in a controlled environment, where all of the necessary professionals are already at hand should the need arise, rather than having to be born in an emergency and potentially rushed situation. Surely the welfare of the unborn child should be placed ahead of a so-called "pleasant birthing experience" for the new mother.

5. The use of emergency ambulance resources in 33%-50% of cases and Community Midwives must have an additional financial implication, which is significantly greater than parents, in a controlled way, simply entering the hospital and giving birth in a building, which already exists and is already being paid for, with staff present whose salaries are also part of the fixed costs of running the hospital. In this time of austerity surely this would be a sensible cost-saving exercise.

6. Parent physical and mental welfare would be significantly improved if emergency procedures could be avoided. I would go as far as to say, that I bet that one or more of the annual maternal deaths could be avoided.

I repeat, surely the welfare of the unborn child should be placed ahead of a so-called "pleasant birthing experience" for the new mother.

Comments welcomed?!

I know a few Doctor Doctors as well Boff. Mostly working in medical research.

Ah that should be doctor pseudo doctor if they are a mere MEDICAL doctor .

They are indeed officially Very Clever.

Yep, gave birth in the Whittington too. It was all going absolutely fine till the shifts changed. The second midwife was the one at fault from my perspective, but I think it was really a lack of communication between the two teams. Doesn't help with the PTSD though.

I think it really depends on which community midwife team you see re: homebirths. My main ante-natal midwife had actually had a homebirth and was evangelical about it. Probably didn't help that I went a tad lentil-weaving during pregnancy, she probably thought I was a shoe-in. To hear her talk about it you'd think that the ratio was far higher round here.

PHD's - Academically clever perhaps, however, common sense, usually none!

I have 5 o levels and 5 CSEs, does that mean I have loads of common sense then? Or are you going to come up with a hackneyed old sterotype for me as well?

Oh FFS
How many academics do you actually know? Or have you just read about them in books?

Pleasantly surprised and complimented that you think I can read!

OP, do you see at all that you are being deliberately provocative? Comments about Jeremy Kyle participants and BoffinMum's intelligence - grow up.

"surely the welfare of the unborn child should be placed ahead of a so-called pleasant birthing experience" for the new mother"
completely agree. Let's ban hospital births for low risk women

Oh hang on...you're not basing this on facts?

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actually I would like to ban you - that would give me a more pleasant MN experience

It is UP TO THE MOTHER! - Personally I preferred going to the hospital, I liked the break away from home ...
also If I had not went to the hospital itself for the birth of my DS I would probably not be typing this right now we both came so close to the big white pearly gate - but a Rudy fantastic doctor saved us.

But at the end of the day do these hospitals carry risks of there own .. OF COURSE THEY DO .. MRSA and other risk's are in the hospital and all humans can make mistakes.

At home it is cosy and the mother to be can do what she pleases and obviously has her own things there, she can watch TV and eat what she bloody well likes ... But me I'd much rather have the hospital Toast (Yum)

SO whoever posted this rather silly Topic - What do you propose to do .. Force these mothers to the hospital? Well I would not like to be you - as woman pregnant or not will do what they like and if a pregnant woman in labor tells you what she bloody well wants you jump to ...
Midwife wanted me off the loo ... lets just say I would not budge till I wanted to and that was that! :)

Karen, my post wasn't serious - honestly. Just pointing out to the OP that if the decision was based in fact rather than the ramblings of an overheated brain, the outcome would be very different.

No no Stealth was aiming it at the actual topic lol :) (NHS Supporter?)

LOL Puffin

Good luck with your cause. What a good idea to look to Mumsnet as you will get loads of support! Oh, hang on.......

Reading between the lines, although using an emotive way of doing it, I wonder if OP has a point?

I think she is saying that if there is a chance that things might go wrong (even for so called "low risk" women), then why leave it to chance....why not start in an environment where they are equipped to respond quickly. Surely this would be ultimately safer for the unborn child, and would have a potential cost saving spin off as well by not having to make use of the blue light service.

What I think others are saying is that the statistics actually show for low risk women that intervention may be too quickly undertaken in a hospital environment, thereby actually increasing the risks to the unborn child, and also the resulting costs.

Perhaps it would be interesting to study why second-time mums choose to have a home birth if they had a hospital birth the first time round, just to see how much a poor hospital experience contributes to this decision.

But nail, a hospital birth has risks that are much lower for a home birth - shuld they be discounted?

No. But I guess that is where informed choice comes in to play, rather than political dictat.

However, if the issue is whether the NHS needs to ration and focus its limited resources, then that is a different story.

Then it becomes a case of someone needing to put their head above the parapet and say what society is and isn't willing to "fund".

The hospital environment I'd say is the uncomfortable part - I'd asked with DD3 to go to a hospital an hour away, although there is one 30minuites away.
I'd asked to change for personal reasons as the closest hospital has some rather bad memories for me, however the plus side for the other hospital never minding the drive is that it looked almost like a home or as close to it a hospital can get, had the birthing balls, those rather large home birthing baths, music, very calm environment etc and a room all to yourself.
So if there was a medium to all of this maybe this would be it - the person would have all the nic nacs of a hospital (Nurses Doctors etc) and maybe not quite home but they'd have somewhere they leave you to do your own thing.

Still it is down the the mother at any rate. :)

OK
Home births are cheaper too

nailitorelse: you summarise another poster -

"then why leave it to chance....why not start in an environment where they are equipped to respond quickly. Surely this would be ultimately safer for the unborn child....."

It's really interesting juxtaposing this comment with the other thread going on about 'so what hospital did you give birth in?' One thing I sense from that thread is that for the low risk woman the standard of attention isn't very good - so there wouldn't necessarily be a quick response because no one would know a problem was occurring. Couple this with filthy conditions which can't be beneficial to anyone.

We got rid of the Local Authority run domiciliary midwifery service in 1974; we have now closed down many of the smaller local hospitals which replaced them. Yet I notice that some of the smaller hospitals or ones where the Community Midwives come in to deliver are the ones getting good reviews.

The promise is that the large CLUs 'have it all there when something goes wrong' - but it IMHO shouts out loud and clear that large CLUs are not offering an acceptable service to low risk women - as well as apparently not offering the epidurals on demand when access to pain relief is supposedly one of their selling points .

Maybe I am reading what I want to in the other thread.

Interestingly private health insurers with am eye to the balance sheet live home births. Their reasoning is this.

1. No hospital bed required saves about £300 a night.
2. Reduced risk in actuarial terms of CS, potentially saving around £5k or more.
3. Reduced risk of other interventions requiring presence of an obstetrician, costing £300-£1000.
4. Reduced risk of postnatal complications requiring hospital admission.

In summary, the bean counters think it leads to better and cheaper health outcomes, which makes you wonder why the NHS should see it any differently.